The Secret of Good Health

Dear old and new friends,

I find it amazing how common it is for conversations, especially on the telephone, to begin with the question, “How are you?” For some I suspect this is simply a courteous way to greet another, and not a serious question requiring a significant answer. For others, it can be a polite way to begin a conversation and also a serious question of concern about the other’s health. The irony is that this is an ancient question from about 500 (B.C.E.) in Babylon, once located in present day Iraq.

According to historians, the Babylonians, unlike the Egyptians, had very few doctors because they left the curing of illness to the public! A sick person was required to be seated or placed in Babylon’s city square, and citizens by law were forbidden to pass by the sick person without inquiring, “How are you?” Passersby who had also suffered or had a family member who had suffered the same affliction, or even had seen it treated, would give advice to the sick on how their affliction could be cured.

Paradoxically, today we like the ancient citizens of Babylon tend to often do exactly the same to both friend and stranger by suggesting they ask their physician for this or that medical cure that helped us. If you like so many others today begin your conversations by asking the other, “How are you?”, then let your question be a serious one and not just a polite inquiry. Serious questions require the asker give the gift of all the time the other needs to answer the inquiry, and to listen without giving advice…unless asked!

The Dutch physician and chemist Hermann Boerhaave, best known for his Elementa Chemiae, died in 1738. He left behind a sealed book entitled The Deepest Secrets of the Medical Arts. The book was still sealed when it was later auctioned for $20,000 in gold. When the new owner broke the seal and opened the book he found that 99 of the 100 pages were blank! However, on the title page was a handwritten note by the author Hermann Boerhaavve: “Keep your head cool, your feet warm, and you will make the best doctor poor.”

Two simple easy prescriptions that are not easy to swallow. To “keep your head cool,” not enflamed by anger at others or oneself for stupid mistakes, requires discipline. “Keep your head cool” requires refrigeration by a peaceful lifestyle and living with a non-judgmental acceptance of reality and humanity’s propensity for ridiculous inconsistency. “Keep your feet” warm by having a courageous heart that isn’t afraid to confront authority when it is wrong. Having cold feet is an old sign of being a coward and running from a fight instead of standing your ground. Church and State, the boss and the manager, can all cause “cold feet,” so keep your feet warm and your head cool.

Living With the Question

Dear old and new friends,

In Through the Looking Glass the Red Queen says to Alice, “Why, sometimes I’ve believed in six impossible things before breakfast!” Since morning prayers typically are said before breakfast, are they a belief in six or more impossible things? The countless many that don’t begin their day with prayer or pray at any time would say, “Since I can’t believe in the impossible, I don’t pray!”

Today religion seems to be on its deathbed. Is this because of doubts about the existence of God? A living belief or disbelief in God’s existence seems to be conditioned on the situation, such as in a television report of an approaching mile-wide massive tornado where one hears an unseen person cry out, “Oh, my God, help us!” If those coming out of church on a Sunday morning were questioned whether they believed in God, rare would be anyone saying, “No.” Yet saying that you believe in God is no simple statement but one that has ramifications, some being unpleasant.

People in every religion, Christian or non-Christian, will say they are believers usually because that answer doesn’t cost them anything. A more significant religious question to ask is, “What do you believe about God, and how does that belief shape your daily life?” Since the majority of us never ask ourselves these questions, be prepared to wait for them to dredge up an answer from deep inside. Some may say, “God is like the air, he/she is everywhere” or “God is Love” or “God is almighty,” and other ambiguous statements. A holy man I met while traveling across India had I believe the best name and definition of God. He always referred to God as “the Divine Mystery.” The Mysterious defies being pinned down, is elusive, unable to be grasped as is the mist and fog…and I would add God.

There is a story about the famous Rabbi mystic Baal Shem Tov who had a vision in which he was told that there was someone as holy and great as he living in a distant place. Rabbi Baal Shem Tov went there and found that this man was a simple peasant shepherd. The Rabbi asked him if he believed in God, and the shepherd said, “I heard those who believe have to worship God, but I don’t know how!” As the Rabbi began to explain how, the shepherd interrupted him. “But this is how I worship Him,” and he began wildly dancing, hopping here and there. When he stopped and had rested the shepherd said, “I heard those who believe in God must give to charity,” and with that he threw a handful of coins in the air. Then he said, “I’ve also heard that those who truly believe in God must give themselves completely to God.” So he sat down and he died.

If you have a question about the existence of God, don’t ask a theologian. Rather ask an uneducated migrant worker or a small child, or learn to live peacefully with that sacred question.

Not God Above but Within

Dear old and new friends,

Recently I came across this quote of an unidentified writer, “God made humans because God loves stories”…and I had to smile as one who also does. When I reflected on my own life, my loving parents as my pre-college religious teachers, the schooling of sharing with brothers and sister and my entire life as a series of adventures, I again smiled at the thought of how God must love my story. Take a few minutes to also reflect on God enjoying your life story with its cast of colorful characters and events.

My smile however turned into a frown when I thought of others who had painful and hard lives. What enjoyment could an all-loving God find in tragic life stories of those who have lost everything when tornadoes or hurricanes wiped away their homes? How could my affectionately caring God find pleasure in the life stories of those who came from dysfunctional, alcoholic families or were victims of sexual or physical abuse as did some men that I met as a prison chaplain?

Christianity’s belief in the Incarnation of Jesus is the story of God assuming not only all the humanness of Jesus, but that of all of us humans. This core faith/belief also implies that God was so in love with humanity as to become a living participant in everyone’s human story! And beyond that to become a living partaker in the Big Story of humanity. Not only in its artistic creations and heroic service to the needy but also the darkness of violence, natural disasters, sexual abuses, war’s atrocities and the plagues of deadly diseases. Those who reject as ridiculous such a victimized God as a theological impossibility do not comprehend the immensity of the bottomless depth of Divine Love and its compelling passion for intimate union with each one of us.

Today as spring’s new life buds forth let your spirituality also experience a new spring growth in the mystique of God, not in heaven but within you! For this new spiritual awareness to grow requires you practice daily an awareness of God’s living, personal presence within you. Practice remembering your God is a daily participant sharing your uniquely human story; tasting the ecstatic delights in your loving as well as suffering your tear-soaked sorrows in life’s conflicts.

Especially be mindful of the Divine Presence within times of crisis which today appears in our religion, politics and international affairs. A crisis can signal two things—a rapidly worsening situation that if not dealt leads to disaster. So if any institution or person is rigidly opposed to change and newness, then usually a crisis logically leads to an ultimate end in death. However, a person who is open, even welcoming of change, will experience the catastrophe as the timely death of the old structure that signals the evolutionary birth of a new one.

Historically we live in an earthquake crisis of deadly implications in our environment, global politics and even our religion. In this epic crisis, be open-minded and maintain an ecological stance of welcoming sweeping change as your “God within” proclaims with eternal enjoyment, “Behold I make all things new!” (Rev.5; 21)

Premium Deluxe Home Insurance

Dear old and new friends,

Springtime is when the evening news shows graphic pictures of homes tragically destroyed by tornadoes in Oklahoma or Kansas or elsewhere in the Midwest. A husband and wife, having come from a neighbor’s basement, stand in shock as they look at what once was their home, now just a concrete foundation surrounded by debris. The same homeowner’s tragedy is replayed over and over in California when brush fires fueled by drought consume entire homes leaving only a grayish ash-covered concrete pad and a lone, fireplace chimney.

Through our hearts streaks a shiver when we see such devastated pictures and wonder what it would be like if that was our home! We take some comfort in the fact we have home insurance, but why we find comfort in that is a mystery. No matter how large your home insurance policy, when your home is destroyed you only get money equal to the home’s current value…but never your home back again.

The best home insurance in the world is to have the following words tattooed on your heart, “Home lies in the things you carry with you everywhere….” These are the words of the author Pico Iyer (British born Indian; Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer). Here I suggest you stop reading any further and ponder the meaning of his potent statement.

Pico Iyer’s original saying was, “Home lies in the things you carry with you everywhere, and not the things that tie you down.” I intentionally interrupted his words after “everywhere,” feeling his use of “tie you down” implied restricted freedom to roam, wander or be gypsy-like. Personally, I prefer rephrasing his words: “Home lies in the things you carry with you and not the ‘stuff’ (belongings or objects), regardless how precious because of memories.”

The next time you are departing from your home to go to work, to the store or on a vacation, pause a moment. Before walking or driving away look back with loving fondness at your home. Pause for a micro-moment to consciously recall that you are carrying in your heart all the loving, deep affection expressed there, all the beautiful memories made there and all the memorable events that have happened under its roof.

The world’s most excellent Home Insurance: Never leave home without it!

April 1 ~ Sixth Week&The Feast of Easter

Dear old and new friends,

This Sunday is spring’s joyous feast of Easter—and one of life’s greatest surprises! From birthday parties to getting a big inheritance from an unknown Uncle who has died, life is filled with surprises. Be prepared at your own death for your personal Easter and the supreme surprise of your life!

Everyone has some kind of expectation of what awaits them after they die. If you’re an atheist or non-believer what comes next is nothing! For Christians or Muslims your reward for being good is heaven…or hell if you weren’t. But either reward or punishment ultimately requires your death. Yet we detest even to think of dying and yearn for someone to teach us how to have a good death. Flip through any city telephone directory or do a Google search, but I’ll wager you won’t find any schools that teach how to die. The preeminent school for learning how to die—without actually dying—is a faithful, good marriage! Every committed,unwavering love of another, married or not, requires a crucifixion! No nails or wooden cross required, only the dedication to dying to yourself daily and lovingly emptying yourself of self for your beloved.

Easter Sunday’s symbols of flowers and eggs are prophets foretelling what happens after death. You mean after a lifetime trying to truly love we’re going to bloom? Yes, your unseen until then exquisite internal loveliness with which you were conceived will blossom forth in cosmic splendor akin to the blazing birthing of a star.

Eggs, once forbidden in olden Lent, are now Easter treats and symbols of the gift of death—yes, a gift, to which I will return later. An Easter egg symbolizes each of our evolutionary journeys as an egg and a sperm unite to create the Mystery of Life. Slowly over months in the mother’s womb the fetus steadily evolves into a small human child who delights sumptuously in being continuously connected and securely united with another. So overpoweringly ecstatic is this womb-bonding unity with another that years after birth a person seeks the same kind of communion/connection with another and finds it in loving commitment. But back in the womb, after nine months the child is now ready for the next stage of its evolution, birth.

At birth we come forth from the intimately warm security of our mother’s womb into a hostile world feeling unconnected, alone and fearful. We feel isolated from all that is around us as a prisoner inside a large invisible egg shell and we feel permanently unconnected to anyone and so alone. As the years pass we continue to grow up, and that invisible egg shell grows as do we. We become greedy to cling on to anything that is ours and secretly competitive to be the first and best even with members of our family. This unseen enclosure isn’t on the outside of us, it’s in our brain, our consciousness that regardless of our age tells us we are separate, different from others and all of creation.

That voice of our consciousness however is rather an illusion since we are actually united with everyone and everything in the Web of Life. At the subatomic microscopic level quantum physics today informs us that we are intimately united with all that exists. Your computer or phone or tablet on which you are reading this Haystack reflection isn’t some inanimate “thing,” rather it is an invisible combination of swirling waves and packets of energy! Because of the marvel of quantum energy, more amazingly the words you are reading are alive with my quantum energy with which I wrote them that links us together regardless of the vast distances.

Earlier I spoke of the “gift of death” which comes when our heart and breathing stop. Death’s large dark hand effortlessly cracks open our egg shell with a thundering sonic boom and frees us in a brilliant blinding explosion of light. Instantly, we are intimately connected consciously with everyone, all of creation and the entire expanding universe with its untold billions of galaxies and their hundreds of billions of sun-stars…as well as with all the other universes yet to be discovered. We are gifted now to live in never-ending wonder of a perpetual Easter Communion with all that is created and is being created along with our mysteriously beloved Creator.

“Happy Easter” is a greeting with enormous personal implications we can legitimately wish ourselves and others each day.